ATLANTA - Former state Democratic Party leader Jimmy Bentley, who switched to the Republican Party in 1968 and sparked a defection by four other state officeholders, died of a heart attack.
Bentley died Friday at his Atlanta residence. He was 76.
Bentley was state comptroller general when he and four other Democratic state office holders decided after the 1968 Democratic National Convention that Georgia was ready for a two-party system.
The defection of Bentley; Agriculture Commissioner Phil Campbell; Public Service Commission Chairman Crawford Pilcher; PSC member Alpha Fowler and state Treasurer Jack Ray earned them the label ``Wiregrass Mafia.'' None of them were elected to office again.
Bentley ``felt there was a tendency for the Democratic Party to be leaving the conscience of the South,'' said Rep. Doug Barnard, D-Augusta. ``It was a forecast of what was to come.
Bentley served as executive secretary to Gov. Herman Talmadge until 1955. He was elected state comptroller general, serving from 1963 to 1971.
Bentley ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1970, losing in the Republican primary to television newsman Hal Suit, who lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter. After the loss he entered business and never re-entered politics.
Bentley is survived by wife Gwendolyn Mincey Bentley; a brother, Thomas Preston of Thomaston; a sister, Claire Bentley Foster of Decatur, and seven grandchildren
A memorial service will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta and a graveside service at 3 p.m. at Trice Cemetery in Upson County.
Tuesday
April 23rd, 2024
4:24AM
